TEDxRVA announced the speaker list for their June 23rd event. I've snarked before about how TED-like things are often just an endless parade of White dudes talking about how they invented making sandwiches, but go ahead and check out this seriously diverse and interesting list of speakers. Tressie McMillian Cottom and Art Burton! Melody Barnes, former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and Richmond native, will be the special guest! I'll be out of town, but maybe you should go!

This morning's patron longread!

From Patron Rachel comes this incredibly interesting story about a plot to blow up a casino.

First, the two boxes were lined with aluminum foil sandwiched between two layers of neoprene; if anyone attempted to drill through the outside of the box, the drill bit would make an electrical contact between the steel box and the foil, completing a circuit and detonating the device. Second, Big John had used spring-loaded contacts to booby-trap the screws holding the tops of the boxes in place. Unscrew any of them and the contacts would close, completing a circuit. Third, the lids of both boxes were rigged with pressure switches like those used in car doors to operate dome lights. If either lid was removed, the switches would open, completing a circuit. Fourth, inside the top box Big John rigged a float from a toilet cistern. If the box was flooded with water or foam, the float would rise, completing a circuit. Fifth, beside the float was a tilt mechanism built from a length of PVC pipe lined with more aluminum foil; inside hung a metal pendulum held under tension from below with a rubber band. Big John took a circuit tester and demonstrated to Johnny: Once this was armed, if the bomb was moved in any way, the end of the pendulum would make contact with the foil, completing a circuit. Sixth was a layer of foil running around the seam connecting the two boxes; if a metal object was inserted between the top and bottom boxes to lever them apart, this would complete a circuit.

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This morning's longread

The Weekly Sift is excellent, and a big inspiration for what I do with Good Morning, RVA. You should read this, and then sign up!

Now, as impeachment talk starts to swirl around Donald Trump, but we don't yet know the full extent of what he did, I think it's important to examine myself for hypocrisy, and do what I can to guard against a similar partisanship. So this week I set myself a challenge: Can I spell out a vision of impeachment that I'm both willing to apply to Trump and prepared to live by the next time there are accusations against a Democratic president?